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Iowa joins a coalition of state attorneys general in opposing a citizenship question on the 2020 census

Associated Press
Published 5:13 p.m. CT Feb. 12, 2018

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New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows an increase in median age, as well as growth in all racial and ethnic demographics.
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Protesters demonstrate outside the White House on August 30, 2017, to urge President Trump to maintain the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation.(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (AP) — A coalition of state attorneys general is urging the U.S. Department of Commerce to not add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census, saying it could lower participation among immigrants and cause a population undercount.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led a letter sent on Monday to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

The letter says adding the question "would fatally undermine the accuracy" of the 2020 count.

They were joined by Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The governor of Colorado also signed on.